The Odessa File is a 1974 spy thriller directed by Ronald Neame and starring Jon Voight and Maximilian Schell. It was adapted from Frederick Forsyth's novel of the same name.
Set in 1963 (beginning on the date of the John F. Kennedy assassination), it follows Peter Miller, a West German journalist investigating the suicide of a Holocaust survivor in Hamburg. Miller acquires the dead man's diary and sets out to locate Eduard Roschmann, the former commandant of the Riga concentration camp. As he does, Miller uncovers a plot to destroy Israel using German electronics and Egyptian bioweapons.
Features one of only two film scores Andrew Lloyd Webber composed in his career (1971's Gumshoe being the other). He and lyricist Tim Rice also wrote the song "Christmas Dream", performed by Perry Como over the opening credits.
This film contains examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation: The film is a rather loose adaptation.
- Anonymous Ringer, averted: Eduard Roschmann, aka "The Butcher of Riga", really existed. The movie, where he is killed, led to his arrest, unlike in the book. Roschmann fled to Paraguay and died in 1977.
- Artistic License – History:
- The book and film's depiction of Roschmann seems to be a Composite Character of the real Roschmann and his predecessor at Riga, Kurt Krause. While Roschmann was undeniably a war criminal complicit in the mass murder of Jews, he seems to have been much more detached in his management of the ghetto, delegating the actual killing to his subordinates. Krause, on the other hand, was a hands-on "psychopath" who personally executed prisoners for the fun of it, much like how Forsyth portrays Roschmann; he was killed fighting on the Eastern Front in December 1944. Forsyth acknowledges this by having Roschmann shift responsibility for his actions to Krause, although Miller isn't impressed at Roschmann blaming his crimes on a dead man.
- In the film, Miller's SS identity is said to have commanded the firing squad that executed Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the head of the Abwehr who was killed for his role in the 20 July plot to kill Hitler. Canaris was actually hanged at Flossenburg Concentration Camp in April 1945, shortly before the end of the war. This was likely a misinterpretation of Forsyth's meaning by the screenwriters, as the novel merely says that Miller's false identity only disposed of Canaris's body after execution.
- Cover Identity Anomaly: Discussed, lampshaded, and ultimately averted in the film. Mossad agents thoroughly prepare Miller for his role as former SS Sergeant Kolb, drilling him in everything from general SS knowledge to details of Kolb's service and the camp where he was stationed. They even fake a scar from Kolb supposedly burning off his SS blood group tattoo. It pays off, as the ODESSA operative he contacts grills him before accepting his story, even asking to see the scar. Played straight with the Mossad operatives sent in before Miller; it's implied they were caught either because they were less knowledgeable about their cover stories or that their circumcisions gave them away.
- Death by Adaptation: Roschmann survives in the book and escapes to Argentina, where the real Roschmann was discovered in hiding several years later. In the movie, Miller kills him during their final confrontation, making this film Alternate History.
- Dirty Coward: Roschmann. He ran away in battle and escaped to Germany by commandeering a hospital ship in Riga... leaving wounded Wehrmacht servicemen to the tender mercies of the Red Army. When an army captain tried to stop him, he shot him in the back. Miller's reaction to reading this will be important later... .
- Historical Domain Character: Eduard Roschmann
really was an SS commandant in Riga who escaped to South America after the war. - It's Personal: that Wehrmacht captain Roschmann shot? His name was Miller.
- MacGuffin Title: The title refers to a file containing details of the new identities of dozens of SS war criminals.
- Mad Lib Thriller Title
- Nazi Hunter: Several of these, ranging from the protagonist to the Jewish vigilante group he encounters, as well as some real life cameos such as Simon Wiesenthal. As well, Simon Weisenthal, the real life Nazi Hunter, makes an appearance.
- You Killed My Father: The real reason Peter Miller assists in the infiltration of ODESSA. Turns out his father was the army captain Tauber witnessed Roschmann shoot dead in Riga to save his own hide.